The earliest that we know of Deidara, he is in a temple, being confronted by Kisame, Itachi, and Sasori. He was a bomber for hire, and his actions alerted the Akatsuki of his powers. When Itachi confronted him, he told Deidara that if he could win in a battle, he would be allowed to leave, but if he lost, he would have to join Akatsuki. Deidara was confident that he would win, due to having "the perfect art". He sent a bomb straight at Itachi, who dodged, but Deidara was able to capture Itachi with a centipede made of clay. Before Deidara could detinate it though, Itachi told him to stop. Deidara had actually been in Itachi's Genjutsu before the fight started, and the clay centipede had coiled around himself. Deidara began hating the Sharingan eyes from that day onward.

Deidara was then partnered with Sasori, who he referred to as Sasori no Danna (Master Sasori). The two often argued about their views of art. Deidara, who made exploding works of clay, believed that art was free flowing, and quickly departing, while Sasori, who made long-lasting puppets out of humans, believed that art was strong and something left for future generations.

Deidara and Sasori were assigned to retrieve the one-tailed demon, which would require extracting it from Gaara. Deidara battled Gaara over the village of Sand, and Deidara was able to keep Gaara at bay by attacking the village itself. Deidara was finally able to defeat Gaara by putting his exploding clay into his arm and allowing Gaara tear off the said arm. Deidara later lured Naruto and Kakashi away from Sasori and his opponents by using Gaara's corpse as bait, and lost his other arm to Kakashi. Gai's team arrived to help, but Deidara was able to escape them by making a clay clone to distract them and explode.

Deidara became Tobi's partner after Sasori's death, and was able to have both of his arms sewn back on by Kakuzu. He and Tobi were sent to retrieve the three-tailed demon. Afterwards Deidara gave Tobi a lecture on how to act as a member od Akatsuki, Tobi fell asleep, and Deidara woke him up with an explosion. 

Deidara later found out that Sasuke defeated Orochimaru and became irked, since he was supposed to be the one to kill Orochimaru. Despite Tobi's protests, he went after Sasuke. Tobi distracted Sasuke while Deidara tried to bombard Sasuke from above, but Sasuke shielded himself with a summon. Sasuke rushed at Deidara, but Deidara was able to escape. Tobi once again tried to convince Deidara not to fight Sasuke but he wouldn't listen, Deidara then threw clay bombs at Sasuke but some landed near Tobi aswell and Tobi begged Deidara not to detonate them, Tobi then warned Deidara of Sasuke's sneak attack and he threw a bomb at Sasuke that threw both of them. 

Deidara then decides to use C2 Dragon. He creates a giant clay dragon that spat out many C1 clay bombs and told Tobi to burry them underground, he then took to the skies and bombarded Sasuke with C1. Sasuke couldn't move anymore as the battle ground was surrounded with bombs and Sasuke's Curse Seal lv.2's left wing was blasted off in an explosion, he threw two giant shurikens at Deidara but they missed. Sasuke then struck his sword in the ground and jumped off to attack Deidara in the sky, cutting off the dragon's wing with his Chidori Sword and the giant shurikens circled back and pinned Deidara to it as it fell.

Sasuke used Hidden Shadow Snakes to bungee himself out of the way as the dragon exploded, but Deidara escaped riding on a C1 bird. Deidara retaliated by using C4 Garuda and told Tobi to run. Deidara vomits from his mouth a giant clay version of Himself. When Sasuke begins to run in the trees, Deidara only laughs and the clay clone begins to expand and dissolve, making Sasuke curious at the occurrence. Deidara shouted that he had won as Sasuke began to dissolve. The C4 attack was actually used to put millions of microscopic bombs into the air, and anything that inhaled it would be destroyed from the inside. Deidara then closed his right eye and opened his left before shouting to the sky his art's superiority.

The Pein expressed regret at the death Deidara, saying that it would be hard to ever replace him.